Championship leader Jenson Button has admitted he is impressed with Sauber.
Button’s McLaren team is the dominant force of 2012 so far, ahead of Red Bull.

But not far behind the leading pack, the Briton argues, is the former BMW outfit from Hinwil, Switzerland.

“They have definitely impressed me,” Button is quoted by Die Welt newspaper. “They are very, very fast.”

Team boss Peter Sauber agrees: “We went into the season with great expectations. Now we know that we have a fast car.”

Peter Sauber is sporting some bumps and bruises this weekend following a fall in Melbourne.
Switzerland’s Blick newspaper reports that the 68-year-old team owner and boss fell at the paddock entrance at Albert Park last Sunday, taking the brunt of the impact with his elbow and wrist.

“It still hurts,” he admitted. “All I could think of at the time was to protect my face.”

Sauber was treated by McLaren doctor Aki Hintsa, who said Sauber was lucky not to have injured himself more badly.

 Former boss Colin Kolles and his Greding-based company is no longer involved, but there remains a strong German input with the struggling team HRT.
A report in the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper reveals that the new Cosworth-powered F112 car, which failed to qualify in Melbourne last weekend, was designed and built in Augsburg, a city in the south-west of Bavaria.

It is there that, since November 2011, the Holzer-Gruppe company has been frantically building up the Cosworth-powered cars for Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan.

“Under our management almost everything has been made here in Bobingen,” said Gunther Holzer.

“For the wind tunnel we used the Mercedes facility in Brackley (UK),” he added.

Eight of F1′s 12 teams are based in England, with the others either in Italy (Ferrari and Toro Rosso) or Switzerland (Sauber).

HRT uses Williams’ gearbox.

“We wanted to go our separate way, not like almost everyone else who are all within a few miles of Oxford,” said HRT chief executive Saul Ruiz de Marcos.

The team’s longer plan is to be solely based in Madrid, but for now Holzer will lead the development of the F112.

“For the start of the European season in Spain we are planning the first improvements to the car,” said Marcos.

Holzer explained: “The car is designed first for safety and so is heavy compared to the competition. For the future we are focused on making it lighter.”

Before the lighter car debuts in Barcelona, HRT faces three more challenges – Malaysia, China and Bahrain – at which the sport’s 107 per cent rule will be a major hurdle.

“The goal is to qualify, there is no other,” admitted de la Rosa. “Race reliability is something else we need to work on, but first we have to qualify.”

Official track action in 2012 has now begun, but the pecking order is still totally unclear.
“The tea-leaf reading will go on until after the third practice session (on Saturday),” Peter Sauber told Switzerland’s Blick.

Only after that one-hour session will Melbourne qualifying be looming, but many paddock insiders believe Malaysia – a more ‘normal’ circuit – will be a better barometer.

The confusion is greater in 2012 because the field is apparently so tightly packed.

“I’ve never known it as open as this,” said McLaren’s Jenson Button, who set Friday’s fastest laptime. “Never.”

Lewis Hamilton agreed: “I’m convinced that Red Bull, Mercedes and us are equal.”

Red Bull, however, is widely believed to be the frontrunner, but Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber said they were unhappy with the balance of the RB8 on Friday.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” said Webber.

Also unclear is just how good the new Mercedes is, after Michael Schumacher in second practice returned to the ‘P1′ position he had become so familiar with in his first career pre-2010.

“When I saw the (W03) car on track I immediately sent a text to Norbert (Haug),” Alex Wurz revealed to Sport1, “(saying) ‘looks very good’.

“I honestly have to say they are not yet on Red Bull’s level, but they are not too far away,” the former F1 driver, who is in Melbourne as Williams’ new driver mentor, added.

It seems clear that Ferrari ranks somewhere beneath the top trio, and Spain’s Marca newspaper reports that a substantially-redesigned chassis will not get up and running until the European season begins in mid-May.

“We definitely haven’t seen the real picture yet,” Fernando Alonso is quoted by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, after going fourth quickest in both of Friday’s sessions.

“Vettel is not as bad as tenth,” he insisted, “and Kovalainen is not as good as eighth.”

Red Bull’s Christian Horner admitted: “Qualifying will be the first time we have driven with empty tanks.”

Team advisor Dr Helmut Marko added: “We are satisfied, it looks quite good. But McLaren is very strong, and the Mercedes (cars) will be in the top five.”

Triple world champion Niki Lauda told Germany’s Speed Week: “I am sure the championship this year will be decided later that it was in 2011.

“The top cars and the whole field appears to be closer together — it could be a great season.”

 Ferrari has fallen over by being too ambitious with the design of its 2012 car.
That is the assessment of Marc Surer, a former formula one driver from Switzerland who is now a pundit for German television Sky and the Die Welt newspaper.

He referred to Ferrari’s decision mid last year to abandon the 2011 car in order to restructure technically and philosophically and produce the radical F2012.

But the new car has proved unreliable and uncompetitive in testing, leading some analysts to predict Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa will this weekend be beaten by not only Red Bull and McLaren, but also Mercedes, Lotus and possibly even Sauber, Force India and Toro Rosso.

“They wanted to build an aggressive car, but they have changed too much,” Surer said.

“Now they have realised that it doesn’t work and are having to back-track with parts.

“For them, it’s a serious crisis. They’ll be lucky if they finish fourth”, he added, referring to the constructors’ championship.

Alonso, however, sounded confident in Melbourne on Thursday.

“In winter testing, we see some teams that are quite quick and then when we arrive at the race they are not quick anymore.

“Maybe we didn’t reach targets that were very optimistic but that doesn’t mean we are slower than the other cars,” he warned.

Juan Pablo Montoya has aimed fire at formula one, blasting the look of this year’s cars and insisting he does not regret walking away.
The winner of 7 grands prix left McLaren in the midst of the 2006 season, switching immediately to Nascar.

Still in America’s premier motor racing category and a few pounds heavier than in his F1 days, the now 36-year-old Colombian was asked if he has ever regretted the move.

“Not for a second,” he is quoted by Switzerland’s Motorsport Aktuell.

“Of course I have some fond memories of formula one, but I don’t miss it. I miss some of the people I met there. But the racing? Not at all.”

Montoya admits he still watches some races, but has “very little interest” overall.

“F1 is a joke,” he blasted. “It’s sad they can build cars like that — just look at the new noses.”

 Most leading specialist publications see Red Bull as the continuing pacesetter in formula one.
In their recent analysis, outlets including Auto Motor und Sport (Germany), La Gazzetta dello Sport (Italy) and Autosport (Britain) believe world champion Sebastian Vettel again resides the best car ahead of the 2012 season.

“They still have an advantage, but it’s smaller,” agreed Jenson Button, according to Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo.

His boss Martin Whitmarsh added: “Red Bull has a solid, fast car, better than us in slow corners, but we’re better in the fast ones.”

Switzerland’s Sonntagsblick, however, sees McLaren actually ahead of the energy drink-owned team, with Mercedes in third place and Force India a surprise fourth.

“Red Bull is faster (than Mercedes),” said the German marque’s boss Ross Brawn, “and clearly a little more than we had hoped for,” he told Auto Motor und Sport.

The international publications said Lotus, amid their chassis flaw problems, rank anywhere between third (Auto Motor und Sport) and eighth (Blick).

According to the same press, Ferrari is in trouble, ranking no higher than fifth in the lists of the aforementioned publications — and the authoritative Auto Motor und Sport predicting nothing short of a disastrous season for the fabled Italian team.

Felipe Massa is quoted by Spanish reporters as saying Barcelona was “a little more positive” than the Jerez test recently, and he was asked to rank the development of the new F2012 car out of ten.

“Probably more than five. There is still much to do, but now we are closer than we were,” said the Brazilian.

As for whether the car is a race winner, Massa added: “I hope so, but it’s very difficult to say anything in testing,” he is quoted by Finland’s Turun Sanomat.

Indeed, Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi ended last week’s Barcelona test with the quickest time, but Blick’s veteran correspondent Roger Benoit warned against taking that too seriously.

“When with the same tyres at the same time, (Mercedes’ Nico) Rosberg was a second faster per lap than Sauber’s Japanese,” he said.

“In testing, the truth is seldom revealed — if the teams used lie detectors, they would all be laying exploded around us.”

According to Britain’s Sun newspaper, Kobayashi confirmed: “I don’t think McLaren and Red Bull are slow.

“We don’t really wish for wins or podiums. For us this is a bit too far away.”

Instead, the midfield battle looks extremely tight, with Brazilian correspondent Livio Oricchio surmising that Sauber as well as Force India, Toro Rosso and Williams are all in there.

“It will be race to race,” Toro Rosso’s Giorgio Ascanelli told the Italian press. “From what we’ve seen so far, this fight will be amazing.”

And Oricchio concluded: “As for HRT and Marussia, who have not even presented their 2012 cars, they undoubtedly have capable people, but also almost as many difficulties.”

The Italian press has pointed the finger at Vitaly Petrov’s “rubles” as Jarno Trulli races out of formula one.
With Vitantonio Liuzzi replaced at HRT by Narain Karthikeyan, and veteran Trulli ousted at Caterham by Petrov, F1 history enters a new phase as Italy no longer has a single driver on the grid.

“If you look,” said former grand prix winner Riccardo Patrese to La Stampa, “the drivers coming in now are from central America and the East.”

The unsponsored Trulli, 37, said he still wants to race but also has his wine and hotel businesses to keep him busy.

“More than anything else, apart from the results, I am proud to have been able to fulfil my dream of racing in F1 for many years and stay on the grid on my own power, without anybody’s help,” he is quoted by La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Switzerland’s Blick newspaper points out that no fewer than 81 Italian drivers have raced in the modern F1 championship.

And Brazilian correspondent Livio Oricchio reminded that in 1989, no fewer than 16 drivers in the field were Italian.

Some Italian fans are pointing the finger at Ferrari, annoyed that the famous marque has not signed a full-time Italian race driver for many years.

And why Felipe Massa? “Because we believe in him,” an official of the Maranello based team is quoted by Spain’s Marca newspaper.

“It’s not enough to have an Italian passport to drive for Ferrari,” he added.

 Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel has flagged his friend Kimi Raikkonen as a potential pretender to his throne in 2012.
After becoming friends prior to Raikkonen’s rallying switch two years ago, German Vettel has stayed in contact with the Finn, occasionally meeting in their domiciled Switzerland to play badminton.

They did not manage to catch up at the Jerez test last week, but Red Bull’s Vettel admitted the pace of Raikkonen’s new Lotus caught his eye.

“If it’s as good as it seemed at Jerez, then Kimi is a serious opponent,” he is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

Not trying to play down Lotus’ impressive debut for the black and gold E20 car is the team’s technical director, James Allison.

But the Briton also urged against getting carried away, with two tests at Barcelona still to run before the Melbourne season opener next month.

“We all try to know what is happening with the other teams, but in any case, we won’t know anything definite until Melbourne,” he is quoted by L’Equipe’s website.

“The most important thing is that the car runs well, not just from a mechanical standpoint, but also in terms of how the drivers feel, which is also important.”

World champion Sebastian Vettel had a high-altitude scare when returning to his home in Switzerland from Singapore earlier this week.

Media reports say the Singapore Airbus A380 carrying the Red Bull driver, as well as other F1 personalities including Peter Sauber, encountered a problem just before landing in Zurich.

The pilots diverted to Frankfurt, and Bild newspaper said it was a failure of the aircraft’s instrument landing system (ILS).

Passengers recalled that as the plane descended for landing, the pilots suddenly pulled back up at full power.

“We were never scared, because we were given very good information from the cockpit,” Sauber is quoted as saying by the Swiss newspaper Blick.

“But during the approach I did think, oops, the forest down there is looking rather close. Then we went back up.”

Said Vettel’s press manager Britta Roeske: “The captain came immediately to Sebastian and explained the electronic defect. Sebastian was very relaxed and even let himself be photographed with the crew members and passengers.”

Mark Webber let his frustration show when a French journalist asked him a tough question in Singapore.
According to specialist publications Auto Motor und Sport, Bild-Zeitung (Germany) and Blick (Switzerland), the Red Bull driver was asked on Thursday how he is dealing with his teammate Sebastian Vettel’s utter dominance in 2011.

“Probably I’ll hang myself,” the Australian snarled before muttering to the questioner: “F*cking wanker.”

All the reports said Webber, 35, later apologised in person to the journalist.

Perhaps he was simply tired, after admitting to his Twitter followers that he had been kept awake the night before.

“My hotel is close to the track which will be great for the rest of the week,” said Webber. “Not right now though, (they’re) still building it! Forklifts, beep beep beep, 4am”.

As for the 2011 world championship, Webber joined his peers in acknowledging that Vettel is now the certain winner.

“The races have been even better than last year, but the championship itself was boring unfortunately,” he said.

“If you look back you wouldn’t think one driver would have pulled away, but that’s what Seb did.”

Stefano Domenicali on Wednesday refused to say whether Ferrari is committed to retaining Felipe Massa beyond 2011.
The Brazilian driver had a bad season in 2010, the year after his near-fatal accident, and team boss Domenicali suggested that he needs to improve.

During a press conference at the ‘Wrooom’ event in the Dolomites, the Italian did not directly answer three questions about Massa’s tenure beyond 2011.

“It would be wrong to say anything at the beginning of the season,” said Domenicali, admitting however that Massa will need to show comparably alongside his teammate Fernando Alonso.

“I hope it will be close between them; that he (Massa) will be as good, or maybe even faster than Fernando. But for sure we need two strong drivers to win the constructors’ title,” he added.

Domenicali’s comments were reported internationally, with La Gazzetta dello Sport quoting him as saying he “expects” Massa to be “always close” to Alonso this year.

Blick in Switzerland quoted Domenicali as saying 2011 “is an important season” for the 29-year-old, and according to Sao Paulo’s O Estado Domenicali said Massa has had talks with Ferrari management “as have other team members”.

“We must all learn from the mistakes of the past year and put it behind,” he added.

“I trust that, as in other situations in which he was under immense pressure and reacted very well, he will do the same now,” said Domenicali.

Sky Deutschland has become the first formula one broadcaster to announce it will televise the sport in true high definition (HD) in 2011.
The news will benefit subscribing viewers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and raise the hopes of fans in other countries that similar announcements by their host broadcasters are looming.

“This agreement is a late Christmas gift to our customers,” said Sky’s sports chief Carsten Schmidt.

Heikki Kovalainen was on Sunday knocked unconscious in a crash at the Race of Champions event in Germany.

“Hardcore shunt with throttle jammed and rear suspension damaged, got knocked out, now some medical checkups,” the Finnish driver wrote on Twitter after the crash in an Audi R8 in Dusseldorf.

Kovalainen’s British girlfriend Catherine Hyde was seated alongside the Lotus driver, who had already taken the chequered flag to win the race, but she emerged unscathed.

“Catherine is sore and her back is painful, got to look after her now,” 29-year-old Kovalainen, who went to a local hospital for checks, added.

He also said on Twitter that, after arriving home to Switzerland, he will have further medical checks on Monday.

“Head’s a bit sore, (I) was unconscious for 30 seconds,” revealed Kovalainen, a former Race of Champions winner.

Nick Heidfeld has ruled out turning to a “slow team” to rescue his formula one career for 2011.

The German, who began the season as a test driver, will lose his current Sauber race seat after Abu Dhabi, and is hoping to switch either to Renault or Force India next year.

“Yes, there have been talks for a long time. And it looks good,” he is quoted by Switzerland’s Blick.

“I am definitely got going to go to a slow team in 2011,” added the 33-year-old, who is surely referring to the new outfits Lotus, Virgin and HRT.

“I’m not mentioning names!” Heidfeld insisted.